"I don't know if there's ever been a time when someone has deserved this honor more," said the Rev. Paul M. Pridgen, who handed Olliff the award. "We're all drawn together by Palmer and the way he's touched our lives."

Olliff, whom his friends also know as "Mr. Shipyard," received the state's highest civilian honor for his work first at the former Charleston Naval Shipyard and later on projects devoted to the memory of the people who worked there.

He started at the shipyard as an 18-year-old apprentice in 1941. Except for a stint in the Navy during the war, he stayed on for 48 years. He took thousands of photographs during that time, all of which he stored and catalogued. He also helped write a history of the shipyard and later developed the Charleston Naval Shipyard Museum on the aircraft carrier Yorktown at Patriots Point.

More recently, Olliff joined several civilians and retired Navy officers to form a not-for-profit corporation that's developing a memorial park at the Navy base. "His was the first name that came to mind when I started asking people to serve on the memorial," North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey said.

U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C., and Frances Presher, Olliff's former secretary, also spoke, and Sanford expressed the state's gratitude in a letter accompanying the award.

During the past few weeks, I've received phone calls from military widows asking if anything has happened in Congress with the bill that would eliminate the Social Security offset that's levied against their survivor's benefits.

At issue is the longstanding practice of reducing a military widow's stipend whenever the widow hits age 62 and starts collecting Social Security.

Widows who were collecting 55 percent of their husband's pension beforehand see the benefit plunge to 35 percent.

The good news is the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment to the defense authorization bill that eliminates the offset over a 3-1/2-year period. The bad news is the House bill is competing with a much less generous Senate version and the issue is undecided.

A conference committee will iron out the differences but nothing will happen until Congress reconvenes after Labor Day.

I also received a call from a reader who was upset at the problem she had using the military's new retail pharmacy program for over-65 retirees and their spouses.

Usually, the Tricare Senior Pharmacy program is seamless. If the retiree decides to purchase a prescription at a retail pharmacy, he or she usually does nothing more than show an ID card, hand over the prescription, pay a small co-payment and walk out with the medicine.

The trouble emerged when Tricare hired a new contractor, Express Scripts Inc. of St. Louis, to manage the retail program. According to the Pentagon, the contractor had some startup problems identifying eligible members.

Most of those problems have been worked out. If you run into a problem with Tricare's retail pharmacy program, call Express Scripts at (866) 363-8779.

President Bush last week signed the 2005 Defense Appropriations Act that includes as much as $683 million that will enable military reservists to join Tricare even when they aren't on active duty. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was one of the principal backers of the bill.

Premiums would be about $530 a year for individual coverage and $1,860 a year for families. And that's for Tricare Standard, not Tricare Prime, the portion of Tricare that resembles an HMO.

Reservists on extended active duty receive Tricare coverage at no additional cost. The new program covers folks who aren't mobilized. It will go into effect sometime after Oct. 1.

The Exchange Club of Charleston will kick off its Yellow Ribbon campaign at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Charleston Air Force Base Family Support Office with the distribution of 1,000 yellow ribbon car magnets.

Initially, the only people who can acquire a ribbon showing support for deployed military personnel will be those able to drive onto the base. The club plans to make more ribbons available off base to the general public.

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